THE INTERNET BALLET DATABASE

Alexandra Beller Dances

Created in 2001, Alexandra Beller/Dances has been extremely active in the New York scene as well as throughout the United States, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Korea. The work has been commissioned by and performed at Dance Theater Workshop, P.S. 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s, University Settlement, Aaron Davis Hall, and other major NYC venues as well as Jacob’s Pillow, SUNY Purchase, and in Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Arizona. The company consists of five dancers/actors and regularly collaborates with sound, design, costume and visual artists. Funding has been received from HERE Art Space, Dance New Amsterdam, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, LMCC, Puffin Foundation, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and private funders. Upcoming projects include an eight week tour through Oslo, Amsterdam, Poland, Prague and St. Petersburg, Russia this summer.

Alexandra Beller/Dances is an ensemble of highly skilled dancer/actors working on the edge between dance and theater. Rich with personal revelations, performances attempt to move, stimulate, impassion and incite the audience. Ripe with metaphor, abstracted narrative and controversial ideas, the dances traffic through the dangerous territory of homophobia, sexism, and emotional isolationism. The company seeks to intersect distinctions between races, nationalities, sexual orientations and political affiliations through a series of artistic collisions. The creations are a truly unique hybrid form, where speaking and moving are essential forces in the creation of meaning. Dances often pay homage to great writers and fertile landscapes of words are often used to create a sense of place, time and relationship. Movement is a key to the startling, idiosyncratic and mysterious information that resides in the body. The process is highly collaborative and focuses on bringing as many artistic models to the table as possible in an attempt to create original imagery, sound and structure. Humor, irony, satire and pathos are interchangeable in the drive towards meaning. Education, performance, discussion and community involvement are all pathways taken towards audience and community partnerships.